There are many ways to decorate walls without opting for wallpaper. The most obvious being to paint your walls. It's a very practical choice for high-moisture rooms like bathrooms or kitchens.
Many people dislike the repetitive patterns you get with wallpaper, plus you can precisely tune the shade to a room's furnishings. A painted wall provides the perfect plain backdrop for framed pictures.
CREDIT: Jeff Trotter Design
Feature walls: Painting one wall a different colour has been around for over 20 years now, but it still has its place. It’s important that it serves a purpose though. A feature wall helps to zone a space, particularly in a room with more than one use, like a living/dining room. It provides a focal point and is also a way of introducing a bold colour, without overpowering a room.
Ceilings colour: Matching the ceiling and wall colour is a lovely effect too. If you’re going for a mid or dark colour for the walls, then you might want a paler version of it for the ceiling. Or paint the ceiling, walls and woodwork one colour, for an intimate ‘club’ feel.
Matching woodwork: Another approach I particularly like is to paint the walls and all the woodwork the same colour. The ceilings in my own home are quite low, and this clever trick has given the illusion that the walls feel taller. It’s also a clever approach for a hallway with lots of doors, like ours, as it blends everything seamlessly. Otherwise, making a feature of many doors can appear disjointed and busy on the eye.
This is a clever trick for a feature wall, particularly for a uninteresting shaped room, or a wall that is irregular in shape.
Add thin stripwood battens or decorative wooden mouldings to a wall to create a feel that can be anything from traditional to ultra modern.
They can be fixed horizontally, vertically, diagonally, geometric shapes, or any way you want. Then paint everything one colour. The result is stunning.
CREDIT: Joel Harbarger
CREDIT: Katie Lee
CREDIT: Richard Burbridge
Block colour is a generally quite a bold approach to decorating a room. It’s impactful and large scale.
But it can be done with pale colours too.
Whilst it takes a bit of planning, simple colour blocking can be done by most homeowners and decorators. For crisp, straight lines, simply mask the wall with a low-tack tape, and use a roller or paint brush.
For a design with curves, draw the outline on the wall with pencil. If it goes wrong, simply repaint over the mistake and start again.
CREDIT:Future / Paul Raeside
CREDIT: Carson Downing
CREDIT: @3boysandahome
CREDIT: Decorilla
Murals give you the opportunity to have something fun and personalised on your wall, whether in a child’s bedroom, your bedroom, or any room for that matter!
A painted mural is a very sustainable way of adding interest. They are perfect for irregular shaped walls, where a wallpaper with a repeating pattern would not work.
Katy Rose is an illustrator based in Ventnor who paints murals. I will work with Katy to come up with something beautiful and unique to you.
Having a mural is a wonderful solution for an awkwardly shaped wall. One of Katy’s floral murals is pictured here – she designed it for The Tea House in Ventnor.
CREDIT:Katie Rose Design
CREDIT: Katie Rose Design
If you’re not a fan of plain walls then consider a hand painted decorative design.
STENCILS are a fantastic way to add drama to a space, and to deal with difficult shaped walls. Long gone are twee grape and floral designs of the 1990s; today there are some fabulous and bold designs from modern geometric repeating patterns to giant mandalas 1.3 meters diameter! Dizzy Duck Designs is my go-to company for fun stencil designs.
INDIAN BLOCK PRINTING using an Indian carved wooden block, is a repeat design that is hand printed onto a wall. Although a repeating design, one printed pattern is never the same as another due to the nature of hand blocking. It is the answer to patterned walls in a bathroom where a paper wallcovering would not be practical due to the damaging effects of steam.
CREDIT: Royal Design Studio
CREDIT: Design Duck Designs
CREDIT: Indian Block Print Co
CREDIT: Dizzy Duck Designs
CREDIT: Dizzy Duck Designs
There’s no single right way to decorate a wall. Whether you prefer calm simplicity or vibrant expression, what matters is that it feels true to you and your home. Thoughtful design always has the power to lift a space — and the people in it.
